Women politicians and lack of gender parity

On the 94th anniversary this month of American women gaining full voting rights, how far have we come? At the ballot box, quite far. Female voters have outnumbered male voters in every presidential election since 1964.

So it’s worth remembering the long battle leading up to ratification of the 19th Amendment. The first Women’s Rights Convention in 1848 adopted “The Declaration of Sentiments” such as, “woman is man’s equal … and the highest good demands she be recognized as such.”

The convention redefined suffrage to mean voting as a right rather than a privilege. Still, it took 72 more years of struggle and setbacks before women’s suffrage reached fruition in 1920.

Sadly, parity in elected office remains elusive. As Albert Hunt wrote in The New York Times, “Women occupy only 24 percent of state legislative seats, 10 percent of governorships and less than 20 percent of Congress.”

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